Halo: Breakdown
by BlackRise
Summary: Scientists say we evolved, Religion says we were created. But the mystery of our race's past may not be so simple.


Halo:

Breakdown

:00

Summary:

Scientists say we evolved, Religion says we were created. But the mystery of our race's past may not be so simple.

Warrant Officer Haley Tolle is many things. Soldier, warrior, and also, a Spartan. Born from the Spartan-III program, she has become Spartan G-049 and an asset to the UNSC. When the Master Chief sets out to find Cortana's solution to the flood threat, Lord Hood devises a backup plan. Haley, along with the crew of the UNSC Bittersweet Kiss must travel to the coordinates pulled from a mysterious artifact, whose origin is not Forerunner, and retrieve what may, or may not, be a cure for the sweeping infestation of the Flood.

:01

The Plan:

Scientists say we evolved, Religion says we were created. But the mystery of our race's past may not be so simple. What we are now, we were once before. They say history repeats itself. Is this why we once again find ourselves spread across the stars, making our homes on new and wonderful worlds? We find ourselves in the same state as our lost ancestors, but the real question is, will we suffer their fate as well?

::

Plasma was sorely overused in the Covenant's arsenal.

The thought ran through Haley Tolle's mind for a fleeting instant as her MJOLNIR Mk. VI's air scrubbers tried, and failed, to completely remove the sickening scent of smoldering ashes mixed with the sweet, metallic smell of blood.

The hulking metal form of the forest green armor suit sat atop a roughly twenty story building hefting a sniper rifle against it's right shoulder.

Haley didn't bother to peer through the scope since the image it saw was beamed wirelessly to her suit and displayed on her visor. The words 'smart-link' danced across her mind, and she knew quite a bit about it.

She always loved military tech, and was all over learning about the latest and greatest in her free time. Gear-head didn't quite cover it when it came to her. She could tell you every strength and weakness of every incarnation of the MA series of assault rifles and was always the first to know about a new armor suit, MJOLNIR or otherwise. Although her cold and calculating demeanor would never let you know.

Even her own suit of armor was heavily modified. A scope with several lenses adorning it's front replaced the homely sun-visor on the forehead of her helmet and a tac-pad had been integrated into the forearm. And these were only the visible changes. numerous modifications had also been made to the shields and other systems. She'd even been chastised by project MJOLNIR's scientists about such heavy modification.

No, she was losing focus. She had a job to do. Said job involved one thing, complete and utter chaos. "Blow up enough shit to make the Covenant more concerned about you than the Chief!" or at least, that's how Lord Hood had put it. She was still a bit sore about the decoy part though.

Currently, humanity's hero was all the way on the other side of the massive hole hundreds of miles wide in which the alien bastards were trying to find their precious 'Ark'. From the Ark, the Covenant would be able to fire every single one of the ring-like ecosystems, known as 'Halos', killing off every single living thing in the Milky Way.

Of course the very same faction that was trying to activate these 'Wedding Ring Dreadnoughts', as the Marines had taken to calling them, hadn't an inkling of what would happen in the event they succeeded. They thought that they were on some righteous 'Sacred Journey' and had a duty to activate the Halo rings. Haley hoped she'd never have to deal with whatever brain disorder had worked its way into every member of the alien army, especially their prophet leader, Truth.

And that was why Master Chief Petty Officer Spartan 117 was on the other side of that hole trying to take down an anti-aircraft cannon to make way for a Navy fleet to swoop in and destroy the Ark before Truth could get a chance to blow everything up.

And here she was, Warrant Officer Spartan G-049, Ready to put on the distracting light shows for a bunch of aliens too stupid to realize they were trying to kill themselves as well as their enemy.

But...

Never let it be said that Warrant Officer Haley Tolle didn't love putting on light shows. In fact, the only thing she loved more than high-end military tech...

Was blowing it up!

And thus, she was currently entertaining herself with the sight of a large number of purple containers containing the Covenant's highly-explosive plasma-based fuel right next to their purple 'wraith' tanks, their purple 'banshee' aircraft, and their purple 'ghost' hover craft.

Also never let it be said that the Covenant was smart... or fashionable.

Now she was entirely convinced of the Covenant's collective brain disorder.

Two of the small, hunchbacked grunts stood near the pile of containers, seemingly arguing from the way they were waving their chubby arms. Their golden methane tanks moving back and forth with their animated body language.

'Not for long!' She thought, and she squeezed the trigger.

It was a single moment, the explosive sound echoed across the city, and the rifle's muzzle brake flashed as the force drove the sniper into the crook of her shoulder. one of the containers exploded, sending the others flying across the plateau and into vehicles and aliens alike making for heaps of purple carnage adorned with blue plasma fires. The two arguing grunts were certainly gone, torn apart from the initial explosion. The sounds of destruction alerted those who survived...

but it was too late.

A collective war cry sounded along with the roar of vehicles. Infantry poured out of the city ruins along with tanks and jeeps. Aircraft lifted off from their parking spots behind the dilapidated buildings, clouding the sky like a flock of birds.

The cliff edge overlooking the giant hole was suddenly awash with the sounds of war as the grunts charged in along with the bird-like jackals with their glowing gladiator style energy shields only to be cut down by the literal wall of lead, and tungsten tank shells.

The hulking gorillas that were the brute leaders hung back behind portable cover, adorned with yet more purple, hefting grenades across the clearing, and peaking up to fire a few shots.

Haley stood to abandon her perch atop the building, and vaulted over the edge into the twenty story drop, landing gracefully in the street. She sprinted down the at a blistering pace that would put race horses to shame. She hefted the rifle up as she ran, picking off aliens that hadn't been ripped down by the torrent in front of them. She dropped into a slide and stopped behind what used to be a wall.

She lifted her sniper to rest on the edge of the wall, continuing to pick off the unlucky stragglers.

With nowhere to go except off the cliff and into a drop of death, the aliens were easily massacred against the stacked advantages of their enemy.

Then, it happened.

one minute, a scorpion tank was rolling into battle off to Haley's left, the next it was gone, an unrecognizable heap of molten metal left where the large death machine once stood.

a collective gasp of curses sounded through the explosions. They had definitely caught the Covenant's attention in a big way.

across the outer perimeter of the hole, were two scarab walker tanks.

what was once a sure marine victory, quickly turned into a crimson red blood bath.

Haley vaulted the dilapidated wall and sprinted into the safety of the streets at top speed as several COs commanded their men to do the same, leaving those who didn't make it to sink into the sea of red behind them.

a loud rumble echoed through the city as one of the scarabs smashed through the buildings in front of them to block their path.

Cement and drywall tumbled into the streets, crushing some of the Marines and blasting the area with the scent of blood. The remaining soldiers suddenly found themselves staring into a green eyed devil. A majority of the Marines turned to run, others were frozen in heart stopping terror as the center eye began to glow an eerie green color and the loud scream of the devil's roar sounded as the plasma collected into the scarab's devastating cannon.

Haley made the move. Jets sparked at the back of her armor, boosting her under the belly of the beast and out of range. she spun around in a quick one-eighty...

and gazed into a blinding sea of green.

She couldn't guess how long she stood there watching as the scarab's singular gate to hell swept through the streets, easily vaporizing half the remaining marine forces.

The plasma dissipated, and when her eyes adjusted to difference in light, she continued to stare on in horror.

where once there was an army, an ugly black scar stretched down the street. angry red veins of molten asphalt branched through, with only the stray molten chassis of a tank or warthog to remind her of what had been there.

Haley's gaze slowly moved across the carnage, and she nearly vomited. in the intersection in front of her was the half vaporized body of a marine who didn't quite make it, his lone remaining eye seemingly staring into her soul.

No, she couldn't let this get to her, not now. Not in the middle of this battle.

With her newfound resolve, Haley boosted onto the joint on the front, right leg, and boosted again up to the deck.

The MJOLNIR's jets puffed out as her feet connected with the scarab's purple hull.

Right in front of a very confused brute.

The brute charged with an unholy, animalistic roar. before it could attack, Haley whipped her rifle up and blasted a round into its head. The brute was knocked off its feet as the bullet powered through its skull and it collapsed on the deck, purple blood pooled around the wound.

three more rounds connected with the heads of two grunts, and a jackal unlucky enough to come waltzing through the large entrance in the center of the scarab's hull to check on the noise from the first shot.

Almost as if they hadn't just vaporized half a company of marines.

Haley shook her head, this was not the time to think about that. She had to do as much damage as she could, and that included blowing up the god forsaken machine she was currently standing on.

As tough as they were, scarabs had a single fatal flaw. in order to power such a large machine capable of such destruction as they were, they needed exceedingly large power cores, and massive amounts of the Covenant's signature highly explosive plasma fuel. In a nutshell, a scarab was like a Chevy Tahoe on steroids. So, damaging the power core would destroy it in a great ball of blue plasma fire.

She had to hurry, the rest of the crew were likely very aware of her presence. But, as she made to dash in and take out the core, a loud whining sound stopped her. She swirled around in a one-eighty that had her head spinning and her neck aching.

Behind her was the second scarab, Its single green eye alight with the sickening glow of plasma. It was determined to take her down, and by extension, the scarab she stood on.

She wanted to say she made to jump off in a daring attempt to escape the coming devastation. But she didn't. After everything that had happened. After seeing that same nauseating green glow vaporize her comrades, she could only stand there like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming car.

She was many things, warrior, super-soldier... but she was also human...

And a teenaged girl to boot!

She could only watch as that light grew brighter and brighter, until it seemed to be the only thing in the universe. It was like a glowing green sun that blotted out all other light.

and then...

The bulbous purple hull exploded in a red flame. Haley blinked as the scarab buckled under the explosion and the green light dissipated into nothingness until it died out completely.

"We aren't about to abandon our comrades!" The male voice asserted from within her comms.

Haley turned skyward to see two falcon aircraft, and a pelican dropship hovering off in the distance. beyond them was an aerial battle that had broken out while she was busy with the scarabs. they had broken away in order to back her up instead.

The second scarab turned towards the aircraft almost angrily it's top-mounted anti- air gun swerved to meet them, firing a volley in the hopes of catching its newfound prey.

The three craft broke formation to avoid the airborne plasma while the pelican let loose another volley of rockets that landed dead center on the AA gun, rupturing the plasma cells. Haley looked on as the scarab, quite literally, blew its top.

as if angered by the loss of its AA gun, the scarab turned and began crashing through buildings trying to get the slippery trio of aircraft within range of its main cannon.

The voice sounded again, "We'll take this one, Warrant Officer. You can send that one to kingdom come!" She nodded in understanding. "Come and get us you oversized bug!" The voice chided at the scarab.

The trio spun around and Haley watched as the second scarab was baited deeper into the city ruins like a hungry horse to a carrot.

A guttural growl brought Haley to her senses, and she consequently drove the butt of her rifle into the abdomen of an unsuspecting brute that thought it could catch her off guard.

The brute stumbled backwards from the force and Haley spun around in her third one-eighty of the day and brought her rifle to bear, this time pointing the front end at the surprised alien.

Click

The brute looked up at her in confusion as she reached for another clip, only to find them gone. Lost in the carnage below.

The brute grinned a sharp toothy grin in realization. The alien uttered a guttural war cry and charged.

Haley tossed the empty rifle at the brute full force, and it flinched as the rifle connected with its face. Otherwise he kept up the charge.

Haley ripped the M6D pistol from her thigh and fired three rounds into its chest before bursting into her own charge. its shields flared but remained intact. When she was within range she made to uppercut its jaw, but the brute's longer reach won out and she was grabbed by the upper left arm and slammed into the scarab's hard metal hull

Haley grimaced as she felt her shoulder dislocate, and her shields blared their annoying alarm.

She ignored the pain as the animalistic alien attempted to rip her arm from its socket and coiled her body, striking it in the stomach in a double kick and as its shields flared and broke. the brute flew off her as she uncoiled into a handstand, letting out a whimper as her left shoulder screamed in protest.

She vaulted herself onto her feet, wincing at the effort, while the brute landed in an ungraceful heap.

Haley took aim at the struggling gorilla with her oversized pistol and emptied the remaining nine rounds into it accompanied by nine spurts of purple blood.

She stared as the alien's fur soaked up the purple substance. Convinced that the brute was dead, she hurried off to the rear to destroy the scarab's power core.

When she rounded the corner she was greeted by the pulsating blue barrier that protected the core.

She slapped a new clip into the pistol and let loose. after the twelfth and final shot, the barrier shimmered and died.

She snatched a grenade from her waist, pulled the pin and shoved it through the protective metal plating.

Haley ran like hell, but, as she made to jump off the back of the scarab, a large form tackled her from behind and she, and her unknown assailant were forced forward by the explosion of Haley's grenade and then plummeted to the ground, rolling a few times before they stopped. She cried out as her attacker pulled her by her bad arm to face him.

she was greeted by the familiar toothy grin of another brute.

the grin faded quickly faded when Haley grabbed a handful of its neck hair and pulled him down face-to-visor.

"Checkmate you gorilla bastard!" she growled.

The brute suddenly noticed the blaring sirens echoing from the scarab behind.

All too soon the scarab exploded in brilliant blue, flattening a half mile wide radius of dilapidated buildings.

what was a beautiful sight from far away was chaos for Haley.

all of a sudden, down was up and up was down as she tumbled head over ass in a confusing knot of arms and legs. Her heavy armor scarring the asphalt with every jarring landing

She'd lost track of the brute in the initial explosion when they'd been ripped from each others grasp, earning her a handful of fur for her troubles which she'd also lost not long after.

When she finally had her final asphalt-scarring landing, she could only lie still as a fresh concussion threatened to drop her into unconsciousness. she felt like someone had ripped her skeleton from her, thrown it into an industrial trash compactor, and then put it back all wrong.

She tried to blink the black spots from her eyes. She could see some thing had happened with the ark from her fading vision. She couldn't just lie here when something so serious was going on. The ominous black orb in the sky seemed like it would swallow everything.

She blinked, there hadn't been a black orb before. Where had it come from?

'is it over then?' thus was Haley Tolle's last thought before the world went black.


End file.
